Monday, 31 October 2016

Mother Goose with life animation: Les Siècles at the Royal Festival Hall

François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles are known for their performances of a wide range of music using period-appropriate instruments, including a performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring at the BBC Proms in 2013 using period instruments (see my review). For their latest London appearance the ensemble joins forces with illustrator and animator Grégoire Pont. On Wednesday 2 November 2016 at the Royal Festival Hall, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles will be performing Ravel's ballet Ma mère l'oye with Pont doing live animation to accompany the music. Roth first worked with Pont on Presto!, a primetime series of short films about classical music watched by more than 3 million viewers on French television. You can see a demonstration of Pont's technique on Vimeo.Also in the programme is Debussy's Jeux and La mer, and Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Full details from the South Bank Centre's website.

Quickening:

Songs by Robert Hugill to texts by English and Welsh poets now available from Amazon

four delicate, sensitive settings of Ivor Gurney, drawing performances of like quality. - it is Rosalind Ventris’s viola, weaving its way around and between the voice and William Vann’s piano, that is most beguilingGramphone magazine Jan 2018